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Mentir is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to lie, deceive”.
Below are all of the conjugations for mentir in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to lie, deceive |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | mentir |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está mintiendo) and past continuous (estaba mintiendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. lying).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he mentido and hubiera mentido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have lied).
| Gerundio / Gerund | mintiendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | mentido |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I lie” or “they lie”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | miento |
| Tú | mientes |
| Él / Ella / Usted | miente |
| Nosotros / as | mentimos |
| Vosotros / as | mentís |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mienten |
| Vos |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I lied” or “she lied” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mentí | I lied |
| Tú | mentiste | You lied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mintió | He / she / you lied |
| Nosotros / as | mentimos | We lied |
| Vosotros / as | mentisteis | You lied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mintieron | They / you lied |
| Vos | mentiste | You lied |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was lying” or “she was lying” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mentía | I was lying |
| Tú | mentías | You were lying |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mentía | He was / she was / you were lying |
| Nosotros / as | mentíamos | We were lying |
| Vosotros / as | mentíais | You were lying |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mentían | They / you were lying |
| Vos | mentías | You were lying |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have lied” and “she has lied”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he mentido | I have lied |
| Tú | has mentido | You have lied |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha mentido | He has / she has / you have lied |
| Nosotros / as | hemos mentido | We have lied |
| Vosotros / as | habéis mentido | You have lied |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han mentido | They / you have lied |
| Vos | has mentido | You have lied |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would lie” or “she would lie”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mentiría | I would lie |
| Tú | mentirías | You would lie |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mentiría | He / she / you would lie |
| Nosotros / as | mentiríamos | We would lie |
| Vosotros / as | mentiríais | You would lie |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mentirían | They / you would lie |
| Vos | mentirías | You would lie |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will lie” or “they will lie”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a mentir” means “They are going to lie”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mentiré | I will lie |
| Tú | mentirás | You will lie |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mentirá | He / she / you will lie |
| Nosotros / as | mentiremos | We will lie |
| Vosotros / as | mentiréis | You will lie |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mentirán | They / you will lie |
| Vos | mentirás | You will lie |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | mienta |
| Tú | mientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mienta |
| Nosotros / as | mintamos |
| Vosotros / as | mintáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mientan |
| Vos | mientas |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | mintiera | mintiese |
| Tú | mintieras | mintiese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mintiera | mintiese |
| Nosotros / as | mintiéramos | mintiésemos |
| Vosotros / as | mintierais | mintieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mintieran | mintiesen |
| Vos | mintieras | mintiese |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | mintiere |
| Tú | mintieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mintiera |
| Nosotros / as | mintiéremos |
| Vosotros / as | mintiereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mintieren |
| Vos | mintieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “lie!” and “don’t lie!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | miente | no mientas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | mienta | no mienta |
| Nosotros / as | mintamos | no mintamos |
| Vosotros / as | mentid | no mintáis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | mientan | no mientan |
| Vos | no mientas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya mentido |
| Tú | hayas mentido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya mentido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos mentido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis mentido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan mentido |
| Vos | hayas mentido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera mentido / hubiese mentido |
| Tú | hubieras mentido / hubieses mentido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera mentido / hubiese mentido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos mentido / hubiésemos mentido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais mentido / hubieseis mentido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran mentido / hubiesen mentido |
| Vos | hubieras mentido / hubieses mentido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere mentido |
| Tú | hubieres mentido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere mentido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos mentido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis mentido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren mentido |
| Vos | hubieres mentido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté mintiendo |
| Tú | estés mintiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté mintiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos mintiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis mintiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén mintiendo |
| Vos | estés mintiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera mintiendo / estuviese mintiendo |
| Tú | estuvieras mintiendo / estuvieses mintiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera mintiendo / estuviese mintiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos mintiendo / estuviésamos mintiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais mintiendo / estuvieseis mintiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera mintiendo / estuviese mintiendo |
| Vos | estuvieras mintiendo / estuvieses mintiendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere mintiendo |
| Tú | estuvieres mintiendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere mintiendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos mintiendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis mintiendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere mintiendo |
| Vos | estuvieres mintiendo |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos mentiste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos mentías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos mentirías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos mentirás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos mientas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos mintieras / Vos mintiese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no mientas |